The Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA) has awarded the Austrian transportation technology giant Kapsch TrafficCom a new contract to replace and maintain all roadside tolling equipment in the mixed-mode, cash, and express toll lanes under the agency’s management.
Kapsch’s contract with the MDTA commenced in February and includes the replacement of all the agency’s toll equipment, and six years of subsequent operations and maintenance, as well as the option to extend the contract for an additional four years.
The project volume of the base contract exceeds US$67m (€55m) and will be managed locally from the Kapsch office in Rockville, Maryland. Kapsch is a leading provider of toll collection systems worldwide, and has provided products and services to the MDTA since 1994 through the E-ZPass Group.
The project will be managed locally from the Kapsch office in Rockville, Maryland. The contract includes hardware upgrades at all MDTA road, bridge and tunnel facilities, including:
• William Preston Lane Memorial Bay Bridge (US 50/301);
• Thomas J Hatem Memorial Bridge (US 40);
• Francis Scott Key Bridge (I-695/Baltimore Beltway);
• Gov Harry W Nice Memorial Bridge (US 301);
• Fort McHenry Tunnel (I-95);
• Baltimore Harbor Tunnel (I-895);
• Maryland Route 200/Intercounty Connector (ICC);
• John F Kennedy Memorial Highway/I-95 Express Lanes.
All facilities are expected to be converted to the Kapsch system by 2020.
The new roadside equipment will include RFID (radio-frequency identification) toll readers, automated license plate recognition (ALPR) cameras, and scanners in the mixed-mode lanes. In addition, Kapsch will install its stereoscopic Vehicle Detection and Classification sensor (nVDC) in the all-electronic toll (AET) lanes.
The nVDC is a 3D video-based sensor that can track and classify vehicles throughout the entire toll zone while triggering ALPR cameras. Trip-building will be a feature of the new toll system, a proven Kapsch technology in which individual vehicle transactions at toll points are grouped into sets of continuous trips, this correlates with transponder reads and license plate numbers to produce a single billable trip for a vehicle’s entire journey. As part of the system replacement, Kapsch will also provide license plate image-review services and fully-formed transactions to the MDTA back office, enhancing accuracy and auditability of the tolling system.
“Our roadside equipment and innovative trip-building features are designed to offer customers an increased level of service with enhanced functionality and a proven solution,” noted Georg Kapsch, CEO of Kapsch TrafficCom. “With this project we bring the MDTA toll system to a leading standard in all-electronic tolling, and are strengthening our core business in North America.”
MDTA’s executive director, Kevin C Reigrut, commented, “We are looking forward to our partnership with Kapsch. Reliability, collaboration and flexibility will drive this transformation and will allow us to adapt to changing technologies, meet the evolving needs of our customers and provide them with the level of customer service they deserve, while positively impacting on Maryland’s economy.”
